Why is Neon Genesis Evangelion held in such high esteem by anime fans? To me the show is mostly just serialized robot fights strung together with a very thin, superficial story. The only thing the show explores theme wise is a philosophy(existentialism) that has been around for hundreds of years(and even then it's only really "explored" during the last few episodes.) Nothing said or explored in Evangelion is new or profound, in fact it's a very shallow interpretation of existentialism. On top of that the creator(s) of this show seems to have deliberately mislead people with faux symbolism and a semi nonlinear ending in, what seems to be, an attempt to seem deep and profound. And maybe the worst part about it is that people actually fell for it and now Evangelion is considered by many the pinnacle of anime.

So I'm honestly curious as to why people praise this show so much? Maybe it's historically significant and I just lack the knowledge to appreciate it or maybe I'm wrong and everyone only likes it because their waifu is in it. I don't know, these are just my opinions.

>>101485826>>101485826>Nothing said or explored in Evangelion is new or profound
You're autistic. Stopped there, although it's true
The only logic conclusion to this post is that you're on /a/ just for the SoL shows, or you're probably new.
In both cases, go away and come back when you've lurked the fuck more.

First, evangelion's success comes mostly from the period it was made in. It is probably one of the first postmodern anime series, and Evangelion brought a level of subversiveness that had not been seen yet in anime. The context of the series is as important as its actual substance. That's the story you're going to get from most anime historical types anyway.

Film, specifically animation, more specifically anime, is a far from being on the same level as classic literature. Philosophy in anime, though not rare, is generally juvenile at best. Relative to its medium, the better moments of Evangelion are actually pretty profound, echoing masterpieces like 8 1/2 and 2001: A Space Odyssey.

If you don't like it, even for superficial reasons, that's fine. We don't need more evafags. I personally like it, but that's not for the better.

>>101485826
expanding on what i said Neon Genesis Evangelion a rejection piece at the End of Eva Shinji was given a choice of to live in instrumentality and have what ever he wanted if he imagined it he could live in a world where he has sex with the female cast 24/7 but he chose to reject that and go back to living in the real world thats an apocalyptic hell hole because it has the inherent value of "realness" as he realised that experiencing pain is the price of joy and as long as hes alive he will always have a chance to be happy. this is Anno telling Otakus that they should stop hiding their feelings in the fantasy of anime and face real life

>>101485826
It's not about robots, it's not even really about existentialism though it does touch on that, it's about Anno regurgitating a massive depressive episode and his issues with women onto an anime.

>>101493392
Eva is more of a character study on mecha pilots than it is an amazing story. This is why that any themes other than the ones that relate to Anno/Shinji feel forced.

Also, the plot isn't really that dumb. If you pay really close attention, then after several rewatches of the series you can piece together the whole story. It really does do a poor job at presenting all of this information though.

It's a very emotionally charged work, particularly with Anno's depression, expressed in a very honest way and in almost every aspect of the series. I'd imagine most fans would be those who can relate to that, because that's really what the show is all about. I like it for it's human drama and tragedy and introspection, some good directing and visuals despite all the time and budget constraints (they especially nailed certain shots, like the berserk scene), and despite being pretty depressing, I still find it fun and entertaining to watch in it's own right with creators who clearly love the works they were inspired from.

And all the themes that were explored deeper at the end were still all present from the beginning, despite some silly SOL scenes and monster of the week fights.

Evangelion is not good because of deep symbolism, it's good because of its commentary on otaku culture. This is also especially evident in the Rebuild movies. I'm really surprised how many people miss this.

>This is roughly the world-view for Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is a world-view drenched in a vision of pessimism. A world-view where the story starts only after any traces of optimism have been removed.

>And in that world, a 14-year-old boy shrinks from human contact. And he tries to live in a closed world where his behaviour dooms him, and he has abandoned the attempt to understand himself. A cowardly young man who feels that his father has abandoned him, and so he has convinced himself that he is a completely unnecessary person, so much so that he cannot even commit suicide.

>And there is a 29-year-old woman who lives life so lightly as to barely allow the possibility of a human touch. She protects herself by having surface level relationships, and running away. Both are extremely afraid of being hurt. Both are unsuitable-lacking the positive attitude-for what people call heroes of an adventure. But in any case, they are the heroes of this story.

>They say, "To live is to change." I started this production with the wish that once the production complete, the world, and the heroes would change. That was my "true" desire. I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion-myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years. A man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead. Then one thought. "You can't run away," came to me, and I restarted this production. It is a production where my only thought was to burn my feelings into film.

>I feel that otaku have already become common to all countries. In Europe, in Korea, in Taiwan, in Hong Kong, in America, otaku really do not change. I think that this is amazing. I say critical things towards otaku, but I don’t reject them. I only say that we should take a step back and be self-conscious about these things. I think it’s perfectly fine so long as you act with an awareness of what you are doing, self-conscious and cognizant of the current situation.

> I’m just not sure it’s a good thing to reach the point where you cut yourself off from society. I don’t understand the greatness of society, either. So I have no intention of going so far as to call for people to give up otaku-like things and become more suited to society. Only, I think there are many other interesting things in the world, and we don’t have to reject them.

>However, I take offense when otaku are criticized by non-otaku. Stupid idiots, I think, [criticizing] though you don’t understand anything (laughs). There are truly many people who don’t seem to really understand. I know these things without being lectured to by these people. It’s like, why now? But saying those things is still better. There are many who completely missed the mark. When people don’t even try to understand speak about otaku as though they were far above them, I think: what stupid people.

>>101485826
Because first of all, there are some people who genuinely like those kinds of things, even if you don't find it philosophically meaningful, you can't deny that Evangelion is one of the most aesthetically pleasing anime out there. But then there are sophists and liars who use this anime as a means to bind every anime fan to their ridiculous, close-minded way of thinking. Luckily their words hold little to no sway in the realm of casuals therefore making it impossible for them to establish the collectivist regime they are attempting to create on internet forums.

I've never seen anything that proves that. Anno's views on otaku are nothing new, but I think it was just birthed from the "Anno made that shitty mindfuck EOE movie as a troll to say FUCK YOU to the fans because everyone hated that shitty mindfuck TV end! That's why he killed everyone in the end!" stupid western-borne rumours based on false information, that somehow grew into an urban legend.

>>101495500
I really don't know if I buy the Mari is Asuka from a previous loop/daughter from the future theory. At first I thought it was definitely the case but the more I see it discussed the more it seems the only thing to back it up is that one scene with the Walkman on the roof. I don't know if the Walkman is even relevant to the story or if it's just a nod to the fact that things are deviating from the story of NGE.

>>101495837
Did you watch the show?
It might not be on whatever trolling guide you're referencing to participate in this thread, but humankind is one of the "angels" in the story, and is originally alien.

>>101495988
Assuming the theory is correct. I have a feeling that Mari is gonna end up just being Mari. They struggled immensely with just getting the character into the story I'm not so sure grand designs were ever part of the picture.

It's because the shit you said is actually not true, OP. If you don't find meaning in it, fine. I'm not saying I think it's too complex for you or any such bullshit; It just didn't resonate with you. There's a reason, however, it's still so talked about, and the feelings it gave me while watching it are priceless.

" Anime culture heavily split in two ways after Evangelion released" Hiroki Azuma, Ph.D from the University of Tokyo

>A lot of you probably maintain a single image of anime culture. But in Japan, it is actually heavily split in two ways. This happened in 1995. It was the year when Evangelion was first released. This anime led the split, but it also carries both elements. On one side, it depicts the “real” emotional conflicts of a teenager, and battle scenes are also highly realistic. But on the other hand, it also expresses fictive quality of a symbolic imagination. This split is becoming deeper and deeper.

>In the 80s, otaku works made up for a lack of Japanese national objectives. They had big themes: law, or justice, or a kind of nationalism. Works like Space Battleship Yamato or Gundam can be analyzed as a kind of supplement.

>[The young generation] don’t need narratives, they don’t need objectives. They need communication. I think they want a kind of entertainment infrastructure, a way to kill time and chat on the internet. Maybe otaku entertainment is now only a kind of platform.

>In any case, if you only look at what’s produced…to tell you the truth, as this is something we haven’t said at all, but in Japan people have actually given up on the future and potential for anime and games. This is because it has been ten years since Evangelion, and we still haven’t had anything that exceeds it, to put it bluntly. Of course, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex is truly great and I mean it, but it’s not easy to exceed Evangelion, right?

>To put it simply, it is as if things have stopped for the last ten years. In the last decade, we’ve only accumulated more and more fictional, symbol-laden stories with lots of cute girls. What in the world is going on here? That’s the general impression of otaku in Japan. At the same time, we know that there is something that makes this necessary.

" If Evangelion did not become such a hit, probably we could not have made anime like we do now", Akiyuki Shinbo, director of Madoka Magic

>[Shinbo talks about making Madoka Magica] -.... with the change in style, producers from the same age group finally appeared. And finally the flow that had one joining because he loved anime started to change. But whatever is said, the impact of "Evangelion" becoming a hit was huge. Without that there could not be the time we have now.

>Q - You think so?

>- Yes, no doubt about it. If that did not become such a hit, probably we could not have made anime like we do now. But then only "Evangelion" was really a kind of exception

"The Evangelion TV series was the last great work of cel animation" - Mohiro Kitoh, creator of Bokurano

>Evangelion is one work in the continuous lineage of robot works since Mazinger Z, so in that respect I don’t think you can divide works into pre- and post-Evangelion.

>I do think, however, that the reason Evangelion stands out from its peers is the immense enthusiasm the production staff poured into it. Only rarely can something be made with such passion. The Evangelion TV series was the last great work not to rely on cutting-and-pasting before the rise of computer graphics.

>To me, Eva was all about "Since I can’t do anything about changing the world, I will do something about myself." Don’t you think "robot anime" is all about "trying to change the world"? Morikawa-san, you talked about the apocalyptic. One step before that is "social reform" (yo-naoshi). One of the key concepts for understanding otaku is "a child’s sense of justice." The reason grown-ups are enthusiastic about Kamen Rider and the "warrior team" genre (sentai mono) is because that basic sense of justice, which we abandoned in society a long time ago, is still meaningful in the world of these TV shows. Of course, there’s also the terrific monster designs and panchira [the fleeting display of girls’ panties], but that’s not enough to keep the boys interested. That basic sense of justice worked until Eva. But with Eva, it became clear that no one could save the world. And Eva complicated the whole thing, raising issues such as "Maybe I should at least save myself" and "What’s wrong with me, thinking only about saving myself?" Eva marked a turning point. Whatever we discuss today, we cannot avoid Eva.

Oh FUCK, it's happening again. I'm starting to want to watch it again. Any time someone asks why it's so loved I begin to think about it, and there goes the next 3 or 4 hours of my life. Will I ever be free?

TV Tokyo Fukashi Azuma "A social phenomenon like what happened in Eva would never happen now"

>According to Azuma-san, the re-broadcast of Neon Genesis Evangelion in midnight time slots just before the release of the movies (1997) was the start of the Midnight Anime as an established business. Azuma-san was working in the business (department) on this project then. As he looked back he said "Usually (in midnight slots) a rating of 2% was considered to be the pass mark, and since Eva had 5-6%, I started to think "this could go to midnight!""

>At the time, the anime hours in TV Tokyo was 6pm and for an anime like Eva which had a difficult theme, the tendency (if it is broadcast in that time slot) would probably be an uphill battle on rating which is the "lifeblood" for a TV station. Besides, the development of the midnight time slots was also a windfall to the TV station.

>According to Japan Animation Society, the number of titles of TV anime was stuck at 70-90 in the years from 1990 to 1997 but in 1998 it broke through the 100 mark. As other TV stations saw the success of midnight anime in TV Tokyo, they also took up similar approach, and in 2006 it reached a peak of 279 titles.

>However since 2010, the number TV anime titles had decreased for 4 years in row and was down to 195. In the meantime, anime in golden time slots has almost disappeared.

>Azuma-san is worried, "In the case of midnight anime, it is hard to spread its appeal to the mainstream audience. In truth a social phenomenon like what happened in Eva would never happen now." He is also mindful of the shift among the anime viewers. The spread of internet means there is more information available and opportunity to know about more works has also increased, but it also means works favored by fans can get over-concentrated, according to Azuma-san.

'Eva teach me anime doesn't always have to be about crazy movement and a lot of action.' Makoto Shinkai, director of 5 Centimeters Per Second

> Lastly, Kelts asked what other artists besides Miyazaki and Murakami influenced his work. Shinkai mentioned Hideaki Anno, creator of Evangelion.>“The last few episodes of Evangelion make some interesting departures from the rest of the series, and when I saw that it college, I thought it was amazing,” Shinkai said. “I realized that this was animation as well, and that it didn't all need to be action and movement.”

>"Anime directors can be classified into two trends (groups)- those who like and watch a lot of anime and movies, and are patrons and own a lot (of these things), and there are those who are not like that, like me. And so Mr. Anno is unmistakably the former. There is no mistake that these people with the abundance of knowledge have the advantage. That knowledge is always growing, and it should be the case that people who are always brushing up on this knowledge definitely will make fascinating anime. 'EVA,' made during this improvement of knowledge, comes to give off a different light. How should I put it, while Mr. Anno was continuing to improve this knowledge, the energy from his creating hands coincided with the moment that the knowledge was passing through, and it became a unique product, I think. If that amount of knowledge had been settled into, (only) 'Gundam' or 'Ultraman' would have been brought in, and simply, there is no mistake that only a 'well done' product would have been (regrettably) formed. Therefore, as for me, I immensely acknowledge the value 'EVA.'"

' Evangelion was a work that told people it was okay to be depressed' Yoshiyuki Tomino>"I knew when I saw Evangelion that Brain Powered would be called an antithesis to it, but I didn’t want to change my plans any, so I just resigned myself to that. ... I don’t think I succeeded with Brain Powered, and I don’t think it was very good with entertainment...I don't think the series itself was a success, though, I have to admit that. "

>"I was very upset when I saw Evangelion, because it was apparent to me that the people who made it weren't thinking at all about making fun for or gaining the sympathy of the audience. Instead they tried to convince the audience to admit that everybody is sick, practically in the middle of a nervous breakdown, all the time. I don't think you should show things like that to everybody. It's not entertainment for the masses--it's much more interested in admitting that we're all depressed nervous wrecks, I thought. It was a work that told people it was okay to be depressed, and it accepted the psychological state that said if you don't like the way the world works, then it's okay to just pick up a gun and attack someone. I don't think that's a real work of art. When people see that, they begin to realize they are the same way. I think that we should try to show people how to live healthier, fuller lives, to foster their identity as a part of their community, and to encourage them to work happily until they die. I can't accept any work that doesn't say that. "

>Is that different from your downbeat endings?

>"I make sure my audience knows it's fiction and that what happens to my characters doesn't necessarily say anything about their own lives."

Takashi Murakami "Evangelion is the endpoint of the post-war lineage of otaku favorites : from Godzilla to the Ultra series to Yamato to Gundam"

>The controversial final two episodes of the TV series, which unconventionally mix anime scenes with drawings and video footage, focus on Shinji, the central character among the pilots, and his painful search for what his life means both as a person and as an Evangelion pilot. With the purposeless Shinji's interior drama taking center stage, Evangelion is the endpoint of the postwar lineage of otaku favorites : from Godzilla to the Ultra series to Yamato to Gundam, in which hero-figures increasingly question and agonize over their righteous missions to defend the earth and humanity. Shinji's identity crisis, apparently a reflection of the director Anno’s own psychological dilemmas, epitomized the difficult obstacles faced by postwar Japan, a nation that had recovered from the trauma of war only to find itself incapable of creating its own future: like Shinji, Japan is probing the root cause of its existential paralysis.

Yamakan "I don't think anyone in our generation will make an anime that moves the industry, Japan, and the world as Anno and Miyazaki did."

>[Yamakan] I wrote my graduation thesis at Kyoto University on Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and the movie version of Anno's Neon Genesis Evangelion. These were epoch-making films. I don't think anyone in our generation will make an anime that moves the industry, Japan, and the world as these two did.

>So no anime will ever match these?

>[Yamakan] I hope it will. I don't know what post-Eva anime is, but it's insulting to these masters if we don't try to make it. It's also irresponsible not to try and make work that resonates with our times. But no matter how you look at it, what can be done in anime has been. Genres, forms of expression, themes, characters, it's all been exhausted. So what can we do? Only copy, and add our own little bits along the way.

>>101497256
True. There are some directors that tried to elevate anime into high art, but Anno was always a pop-artists.
Let's be serious, something more realistic and dramatic wouldn't be that popular. Otaku are children.

Why are Evafags so cancerous in general? Can't they accept that people have different opinions? Regardless of the actual quality of the show, don't they realize how autistic they're being by continuously sucking the show and Anno's dick and calling people who disagree faggots?

'Evangelion is a summation of the whole history of robot anime' said Tatsuo Sato, director of Nadesico

>"since the time of Eva until now, the anime cycle is getting faster, so how do you not get sucked into that trend? And what is the best thing to do? And the conclusion I drew was to make it the orthodox way, and that was it. And I thought that instead [people] would see a new thing, to see characters growing tremendously through 24 episodes: to see how the characters make decisions, to show the process of growth. I had a keen sense that would become the tastiest part of the anime, so this time I’m glad I made anime in that manner, and it was great to know that people really digging that kind of stuff are increasing.

>Actually Evangelion is very much a summation of the whole history of robot anime

Tsunehiro Uno " It was “Eva” which asked how we could penetrate the “AT Field” and joined our hands"

>Urobuchi – In fact, nobody in “Madoka” is linked to anybody. Just when Mami thought she was about to be freed from loneliness, she died; Before Sayaka noticed Kyoko's feelings, she turned into a witch. In that sense, a very important theme in “Madoka” may be that everything missed each other along the cross-paths.

>For myself, in the first place I feel strongly that “misses” means misses happened somewhere in the part where the idea that there is absolutely no link was not believed. There are the “misses” as the primary premise, and inside myself there is the thought that on the contrary how one gets to know the other side and by what means she understands them are more important.

>Uno – I am very much in agreement with you. I was born in 1978 and exactly when I was a high school student “Shinseiki Evangelion” was aired. And from then, I think not only in anime and games, from Haruki Murakami and Hayao Miyazaki onwards, every Japanese author came together and said “How could we join our hands together?”. It was “Eva” which asked how we could penetrate the “AT Field” and joined our hands. I can understand very well the background that gave rise to a desire for such story, something that looks inevitable. However, from around 10 years ago, such tendency started to shroud a more fundamental problem...

>>101497414
Why are ___fags so cancerous in general? Can't they accept that people have different opinions? Regardless of the actual quality of the show, don't they realize how autistic they're being by continuously sucking the show and ____'s dick and calling people who disagree faggots?

"Evangelion is arguably some of the most beautiful and poignant animation ever created" Richard Taylor, head of Weta

>"I think that is the great untold story to the world. It is sublime. It is arguably some of the most beautiful and poignant animation ever created, and a huge percentage of the pop culture world now know it, but only through a live-action feature film will it transcend that and receive the recognition for the art piece that it is.

>"Now, actually achieving it as a live-action feature film is extremely difficult to imagine. Technologically, sure, it's doable. But at an esoteric, universe level, it is an unbelievably impacting and dramatic story concept. [It's got] pseudo-religious overtones, and all these wonderful motifs are woven into it. It's something that you can generate over 26 hours of animation, but trying to encapsulate that down into a feature film would be a massive challenge. But … with the right director, I think it could be a very beautiful movie. …And that's my big pursuit at the moment. I've put an awful lot of energy into it."

>He lists Eva among favorite DVDs with Ingmar Bergmana and Martin Scorsese's works>"This is a Japanese cartoon that is very difficult to describe and might not sound that great if I tried anyway. It is 24 episodes, and we watched them all in less than a week because you start to want to believe it’s real. This could spawn something like Scientology."

>>101497252>But no matter how you look at it, what can be done in anime has been. Genres, forms of expression, themes, characters, it's all been exhausted.
The fuck? Is Yamakan completely fucking retarded? Anime is one of the most derivative industries in the world. >mecha/robots>harem>slice of life>some shitty fantasy
There you go, most popular genres. Crime drama? Nope. Horror? Almost nonexistent. Serious realistic drama? Nope. Historical drama? Barely any.

How the fuck can you say that "what can be done in anime has been" if even your goddamn film industry is much more diverse.

Mamoru Oshii "The first show to skillfully use the impact and power of words and visualized it was Eva.'

>"After Eva ended, there were a mountain of shows similar to it, but all they did was trace the details.

>"With both movies and animated works, there's a lot in them that you have to reinforce with visuals, which is even truer for sci-fi, where you need vast amounts of details and situations. It's a lot of work even under normal circumstances, but now, there aren't enough people. With Eva, it was like all the people involved were designers, from the director to the animators, so they managed to hang in there until the end, but aside from unique studios like that, if you look at how well today's studios can cope with the amount of details that a story requires, it's hopeless"

>....."The first show to skillfully use the impact and power of words and visualized it was Eva.'

There is no time loop shit. It's a story about some fucked up people and alien fights.
Lots of things are spelt out right in the dialogue, but lots of people don't pay attention to even that, and then bitch about nothing making sense.
For the more symbolic scenes, most of it is self-explanatory.

'I felt my brain had been smacked hard after just watching the opening theme.' Kinoko Nasu, co-founder of Type-Moon

>Overall, the cause was because of watching the first episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion, which can't have been ignored by neither I nor my contemporaries. The story goes back to my high school days, where I met Takeuchi-kun. At the time I announced that I will become a novelist in the future, and Takeuchi-kun said he will become a manga artist, this was like the plot of some popular manga, and in reality we talked to each other quite a bit. Thinking back on it now, it was pretty embarrassing (laughs). Since then, we both graduated from college, Takeuchi-kun went to work at a game company, and I found a local job. I had the casual goal of "finding some time to write a novel," and I didn't notice my dream was slowly being buried while I lived idly as the day by day. Neon Genesis Evangelion was what gave me a big push in the back... or should I say kicked me and sent me flying. Not even the first episode itself, I felt my brain had been smacked hard after just watching the opening theme. My heart thought, how can someone think to bring the PV (Promotion Video) method to anime? How ideas can be expressed so freely in anime? "If there are people in this world who are so ahead of the rest, what am I still being confused about?" My heart was severely shocked. I supposed Eva has the charm and enthusiasm that makes people think "I have to do something." I'm sure of it. Instead of idly saying "when I have time next time," I should at least write something.

>Tomohiko Ito: Actually, I don’t really necessarily want to mention my age (laughs) but back towards the end of high school, I saw Evangelion, and it was probably the first anime that I saw where I was more aware also of the production process, not just the actual finished product. And I was, like “Wow, that’s kind of cool!” And I actually went to college majoring in something completely different, but at the same time, I was involved with an animation production club. And that’s kind of where I guess I got my start.

>[Travic Beacham] I think tonally it’s definitely an influence, because really what blew me away the first time I saw “Evangelion” was it treated this genre, this sort of silly genre – or a genre that could be sort of silly, and could be outlandish and cartoonish – and treated it with a real sophistication. Which I really liked. I think what I identified less with in “Evangelion” was the sort of apocalypticism of it, and kind of a surrender to human neuroses or whatever…

its an anime that has a sort of brooding, opressive mood that is a unique kind of story paralleling the depression of the director. its not perfect, and objectively not particularly great, but it has a charming(?) angstyness to it and giant robots and shit wohoo

"I was angry when people said Lain is similar to Rei" says Chiaki J. Konaka, writer of Serial Experiments Lain

>- There are many common points between the lain's theme and their persons with "Evangelion". Have been influenced with "Evangelion"?

>The production of "lain" had short blanks after forth stories. I had been so busy to make "lain" until the blanks that I had never been able to watch the "Evangelion" though I knew them. And, there was one staff who said "Do you think Lain is similar to Rei Ayanami". Then, I was angry, "What did you say?". Therefore I had a kind of bias before watching programs. I watched all programs when they were concentrated re-broadcast at just our blanks. I saw they had characteristic fascinates, but I didn't think "Lain" was similar to Rei Ayanami.

>However, about that method (using typography in the screen), Mr.Anno may be influenced from the Kon Ichikawa, especially his "Kindaichi Kousuke" series, in my case I was did from Godard.

>Certainly young persons, who didn't watch the Ichikawa's or Godard's, may be look like, or think we copied from "Evangelion". However, it is to say that you didn't study enough.

Madhouse Fuuta Takei 'Eva changed the perception of anime in the public consciousness.'

>Fuuta pinpoints Evangelion as the catalyst for what eventually became the modern industry business model of creating shows that exist as advertisements for their home video release. Eva didn’t just change the perception of anime in the public consciousness, it also sold 1.5 million copies on laserdisc alone, opened the floodgates on shows geared towards otaku, and was instrumental in creating a concept Fuuta refers to as “My Anime”: niche shows with early-morning TV timeslots that shoot to make their money back on home video sales.

>>101498221>Mr.Anno may be influenced from the Kon Ichikawa, especially his "Kindaichi Kousuke" series, in my case I was did from Godard.>fuck your cartoons, I was inspired by Godard!
Pretentious like his anime.

"Higurashi wouldn't have been born without Evangelion." -says Ryukishi07

>Reporter: In what way have your works been influenced by EVA?

>Ryukishi07: It has taught me that there is a way to play a game by considering the world view. Things like, in the OP, what is the true nature of that shining man of which we only get a fleeting reflection? What is the Human Instrumentality Project? This way to play can be done for games, anime, etc. I've realized it can also be applied to stories. Perhaps, this way of playing considering the appearance of the world could be exerting a strong influence in "Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni". Higurashi only presented this way of playing once again, in that meaning, one could definitely say it's a work that wouldn't have been born without EVA.

>Reporter: Please express to us your thoughts and enthusiasm about EVA.

>Ryukishi07: As of yet I don't know the amount of influence that EVA has exerted on the game scenario. I can't really say how much of EVA has crossed over all the presentation and direction of the game. It's also a magnificent work, one that stands over the rest, and, perhaps, the way we've continued after it is a disappointment*. What can we take, what tales we'll be able to spin from this magnificent story? EVA was good, but when it ended ** it seems we haven't learned anything from it. To understand something from this work, and make games and anime with really interesting content well known, we will have to make a much stronger effort, I think.

>I am too young to having watched EVA on tv.>It never aired on Norway.>I recently watched it, but I rushed through it>Too much stuff pressed into my head at the same time>I can't comprehend everything>Explanations on the net doesn't cover everything

so looking through this we fid that on top of being a well made anima, it astounds to confuses some of us........ wel when you thibk about it the advaced thoughts van be scary to some... things like eva snd ghost in the shell touch on tricky subjects that in the end help us evole.................

It's not that complicated. Some mysterious ancient prophecy, characters dealing with their issues of trying to communicate with others, problems of their identity, Hedgehog's Dilemma, thermal expansion, etc

Just because he's inspired by Godard doesn't mean they're less similar.
Both Rei and Lain fall into the same vein of being deeply philosophical with elements of abstract imagery/concepts that back up their quest for defining themselves or finding out what they are at the core.

Coincidentally they're both artificially made human beings living a lie someone else crafting for them, and they both know it and eventually become God and all that, denying their creator the same godhood. All the while there are several "Lains" or "Reis" making up their psyche, but they are all the same - that kind of schizophrenia is found in both characters.

You could swap Rei for Lain in her anime and still have the same thing go on, no fucking joke. They aren't the exact same, Lain has a blank expression often but doesn't struggle with the expression of the social side and nor is she troubled by her own existence until later in the series.
The beauty of it is that it doesn't need to be a copy. I don't think it is either, had Lain been done first you'd still be saying they're similar.